Daily GK Potion – 7th March 2015

Gromo Referal
  1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi among 30 most influential people on internet: Time Magazine
    • Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been named among the 30 most influential people on the internet by Time magazine in a list which also features US President Barack Obama.
    • Time said the Indian Prime Minister has roughly 38 million followers on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, putting him ahead of any other leaders in the world except Obama.
    • “And unlike many of his contemporaries, Modi recognises that social media can be invaluable when trying to reach India’s 200 million-plus online population directly,” the Time magazine said.
    • The list also includes reality star Kim Kardashian, singer Justin Beiber, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Chinese actress Yao Chen, singer Shakira, photographer behind the hugely popular blog Humans of New York Brandon Stanton and TV personality Jimmy Fallon.
      modi_niti
  2. PM Modi inaugurates two 600 MW power units in MP’s Khandwa
    • Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated two units each of 600 MW of Shree Singaji Thermal Power Plant in Khandwa district  of Madhya Pradesh.
    • “Many villages lack access to electricity and the people most affected are the poor,”the PM said.
    • The PM, however, assured that the amount of power that used to be generated when BJP formed its government in MP, will be now produced by these units alone.
    • Shree Singaji Thermal Power Plant is a coal-fired project located near Dongaliya village in Khandwa. The project is owned by MPPGCL.
  3. NPCI links 15 crore bank accounts with Aadhar
    • National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has said that it reached a major milestone of successfully linking 15 crore bank accounts with Aadhaar number.
    • Beneficiaries of all types of government subsidies /benefit transfers are expected to be brought under the linkage programme very soon.
    • The current focus is on linking the bank accounts of 17 crore DBTL (direct benefit transfer for LPG) beneficiaries with Aadhaar numbers, latest by June 30, 2015,
  4. Walmart India appoints Ashwin Mittal as CFO
    • Walmart India has announced two executive appointments with Ashwin Mittal as the new Chief Financial Officer and Javier Rojo as head of Real Estate and Business Development.
    • Javier will lead the Real Estate and Business Development and will be responsible for Design & Construction, Real Estate and Store Planning.
  5. RBI eases norms for home loans for up to Rs 10 lakh
    • Giving a boost to affordable housing, the RBI today eased the norms for home loans for up to Rs 10 lakh by allowing banks to include stamp duty and registration charges to the cost of a unit.
    • These charges form around 15 per cent of the cost of the house and place a burden on borrowers.
    • “With a view to encourage availability of affordable housing to such borrowers, it has been decided that in cases where the cost of the house does not exceed Rs 10 lakh, banks may add stamp duty, registration and other documentation charges to the cost of the unit for calculating LTV (loan to value) ratio,” RBI said in a notification.
      raghuram_rajan
  6. iSafe Women’s Safety App Launched by UST Global
    • UST Global – the biggest employer of IT professionals in Kerala – Friday launched its mobile-based app for women’s safety, ahead of the International Women’s Day on March 8.
    • To start with, the app – iSafe – has been rolled out for Thiruvananthapuram City Police and would soon be made available in other cities.
    • The app is currently available for Android phones and will soon be available on other platforms.
    • Through the app, women will be able to send instant alerts to police control room by using panic button or just by the long press of volume rocker (down) key of their mobile phones.
    • The police control room receives the alert along with information of the location, the subscriber ID and the IMEI number of the mobile.
    • Police then immediately dispatches help via police CRV (Control Room Vehicle) that is nearest to the distress location.
  7. EU adopts climate change targets for Paris conference
    • The European Union has formally adopted its climate change targets ahead of a UN conference set for December in Paris.
    • The European Union on Friday sent its formal promise on how much it plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations after a meeting of the bloc’s climate and energy ministers in Brussels.
    • The targets pledged by the 28-member EU include a 40 percent cut in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

Read next : Daily GK Potion – 8th and 9th March 2015 ››

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